The Light Night Walk is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's nationwide walk to raise awareness and funds to cure leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families.

1000+ walkers in 125 locations across the US and Canada will be walking in The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s 2006 Light The Walks this fall as part of the Friends of Allie team. The team was formed in memory of a baby girl named Allie Scott, who lost her battle to AML just 4 days shy of turning 9 months. She touched people’s hearts and inspired their passion to make a difference.

Although research is responsible for increasing survival rates for these diseases, the battle is far from over. Did you know that:

• Every five minutes, someone in this country is diagnosed with blood cancer: Every ten minutes, someone loses the fight.
• Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children.
• Lymphomas are the most common blood cancers.
• The myeloma survival rate is only 32 percent.

Friends of Allie is raising funds for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, in hopes of claiming an even bigger prize at the end of 2006 —the chance to place the group’s name on a pediatric cancer research grant. The team must raise $100,000 to receive the Society’s grant-naming opportunity, but we do not plan to stop there. The national goal for this team of more than 1,600 walkers is $312,000, an amount that would bring its total for three Light The Night Walks seasons to more than $1 million—all raised in just over two years. The Society has selected Joseph Wiemels, Ph.D., University of California, San Francisco, as a grantee for his research in the area of childhood leukemia. For each $100,000 raised, the team will have Dr. Wiemels grant named in its honor for up to three years total. Dr. Wiemels grant is made under the Society’s Career Development Program (CDP), which funds talented researchers at different points in their developing careers. Click here to read Dr. Wiemels exciting letter to the team. To learn more about the national Friends of Allie Light The Night team, please visit htt:p//www.friendsofallie.org.

We cannot do it without the support of people like you. All donations are tax deductible. Please contact us at teamleaders@friendsofallie.org if you are interested in joining us for the walk or would like to make a donation to our team. You can make online donations through this site or by check made out to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Thank you.